System and method for enabling an external-system view of email attachments

ABSTRACT

A method and email application enable email attachments to be viewed through a system external to the email application itself in accordance with select categories. The email application creates categories and categorizes the email attachments according to such categories. The email application then maps the categories into a format understandable by the external system for category information and provides the mapped categories to the external system in such format. In response to receiving a request from the external system for the contents of one of the mapped categories and in response to such category having no further subcategories, the email application identifies the email attachments under such category and maps the identified email attachments to file names. The file names are then provided to the external system as the contents of such category. If the external system requests the contents of a category that has further subcategories, the email application maps the subcategories into a format understandable to the external system and provides such subcategories to the external system as the contents of such category. 
     The present invention can be used to provide a file-system view of email attachments. In such case, the email application appears as a file system to the operating system of an email user&#39;s computer. The created categories are provided to the operating system as the “folders” in the file system. The email attachments are provided as files within such folders.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No.60/606,862, filed on Sep. 2, 2004, and titled “Email System and Methodfor Viewing, Searching, Tracking, and Indexing Email,” the contents ofwhich are incorporated by reference as if fully disclosed herein.

This application also claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional ApplicationNo. 60/662,986, filed on Mar. 18, 2005, and titled “System and Methodfor Enabling an External-System View of Email Attachments,” the contentsof which are incorporated by reference as if fully disclosed herein.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

This invention relates generally to email applications and morespecifically to a system and method for categorizing email attachmentsand for providing an external system view of email attachments inaccordance with such categories.

2. Description of the Background Art

Electronic mail (“email”) is an important communication medium. It isbecoming one of the most common ways for people to share files, such astext documents, digital photos, video files, graphics files, and musicfiles, where such files are sent as attachments to email messages.Consequently, there is a wealth of information stored in individuals'email accounts.

Unfortunately, the only way for email users to access this informationis through their email accounts. Moreover, email attachment informationis relatively unorganized in known email systems, as such systems do notenable email attachments to be organized and viewed separately fromemail messages themselves.

Therefore, it is desirable to have an email application that enablesemail attachments to be more easily viewed and accessed by categorizingemail attachments and enabling the email attachments and correspondingcategories to be viewed and accessed through an external system.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention enables email attachments to be viewed through asystem external to the email application itself (referred to herein asan “external system”) in accordance with select categories. In oneembodiment, this method is implemented by email server software(referred to herein as the “email application”) that stores andprocesses email messages and related mailbox information for authorizedemail users. A user accesses his mailbox information through a clientapplication that communicates with the server running the emailapplication. Email clients (referred to herein as the “email client”)can be software like Microsoft Outlook or JavaScript downloaded into aweb browser.

In the present invention, the email application creates categories uponwhich to categorize email attachments in the email system. In oneembodiment, these categories correspond to the fields and terms of themetadata in the headers of email messages having email attachments. Somecategories may also correspond to user-created tags.

The email application categorizes the email attachments according to thecreated categories. One way in which this can be done is by indexingemail attachments according to the fields and terms of the metadata, butthe invention is not limited to this way.

To enable an external-system view of email attachments, the emailapplication maps the categories into a format understandable by theexternal system for category information and provides the mappedcategories to the email system in such format. In response to receivinga request from the external system for the contents of one of the mappedcategories and in response to such category having no furthersubcategories, the email application identifies the email attachmentsunder such category and maps the identified email attachments to filenames. The file names are then provided to the external system as thecontents of such category. If the external system requests the contentsof a category that has further subcategories, the email application mapsthe subcategories into a format understandable to the external systemand provides such subcategories to the external system as the contentsof such category.

The present invention can be used to provide a file-system view of emailattachments. In such case, the email application appears as a filesystem to the operating system of the email user's computer. The createdcategories are provided to the operating system as the “folders” in thefile system. The email attachments are provided as files within suchfolders.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates a method for enabling email attachment to becategorized and then viewed through a system external to the emailapplication in accordance with such categories.

FIGS. 2 a-b illustrate a method for providing a file-system view ofemail attachments.

FIGS. 3-6 are example screen shots of a file-system view of emailattachments.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram of functional modules of an email applicationaccording to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8-12 are flow charts illustrating the operation of variousfunctional modules in an email application according to one embodimentof the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 1. General Method forEnabling an External-System View of Email Attachments

FIG. 1 illustrates a method, according to one embodiment of the presentinvention, for categorizing email messages and for enabling emailattachments to be viewed through a system external to the emailapplication itself (referred to herein as an “external system”) inaccordance with such categories. In one embodiment, this method isimplemented by email server software (referred to herein as the “emailapplication”) that stores and processes email messages and relatedmailbox information for authorized email users (authorized email usersare sometimes referred to as “provisioned email users”). The emailapplication typically runs on a server, and a user accesses his mailboxinformation through a client application that communications with theserver running the email application. Email clients (referred to hereinas the “email client”) can be software like Microsoft Outlook orJavaScript downloaded into a web browser.

Referring to FIG. 1, when the email application receives an emailmessage with an attachment for an authorized user, it parses 110 theemail message header for data related to the email message and theattachment. This data in the header is generally referred to as“metadata” in the industry. The metadata may include information aboutthe attachment itself, such as the type and size of attachment, andinformation about the email message in which the attachment wasimbedded, such as the sender of the email message, the recipient(s) ofthe email message, and the date of the email message.

For each email attachment received, the email application stores 120 themetadata corresponding to such attachment and the related email messagein association with information that uniquely identifies the emailattachment and enables the email attachment to be retrieved fromstorage. In one embodiment, this information is a message ID and messagepart number. In this embodiment, email attachments are stored as a“part” of an email message. Each email message is assigned a uniquemessage ID, and each email attachment is assigned a part number. Forinstance, if an email message has two attachments that are stored as thesecond and third part of the message, then one attachment would beassigned “part number 2” and the other would be assigned “part number3,” as applicable. The actual attachment and related email message arestored in a storage device accessible to the email application.

The email application categorizes 130 the email attachments into one ormore select categories based on the metadata. The metadata categoriesreflect the type of metadata received (e.g., email recipient, emailsender, email date, attachment type, attachment size, etc.). Thecategorization process may take place before, after, or at the same timethat the metadata information is stored.

In one embodiment categorizing email attachments by the metadata entailsindexing the email attachments by the “fields” and “terms” of themetadata. Examples of metadata “fields” in an email header are “From,”“To,” “cc,” “date,” “Subject,” “Content-Type,” and “Size,” The “terms”of the metadata are the values of the fields. For instance, in an emailaddressed to “john@abccorp.com,” the term associated with the field “To”in the metadata for such email is “john@abccorp.com.”

Categories that are based on the fields and terms of the metadata arehierarchical in that the fields correspond to the highest-levelcategories and the terms under each field correspond to subcategoriesunder such field.

Email attachments may also be categorized by user-created categories.For instance, lithe email application enables the user to create tagsfor email messages, email attachments in tagged messages can becategorized by such tags.

When it is desirable to enable an external-system view of emailattachments in accordance with the categories, the email applicationprovides 140 to the external system information that identifies thecategories and the email attachments in each of the categories. Morespecifically, the email application maps 140 a the categories into aformat understandable by the external system for category information,and, for each of the categories with no further subcategories, the emailapplication maps 140 b each of the email attachments in such category toa file name, which is provided to the external system in a formatunderstandable by the external system. The email application stores 140c a record of the mappings, and, thus, when the external system requeststhe contents of a particular category, the email application is able toreverse map 140 d the requested category to a format applicable to theemail application and then provide the external system with the contentsof such category. Such contents are either (i) further subcategories or(ii) file names that correspond to email attachments in the requestedcategory. When the external system requests a particular file by thefile name, the email system is able to map 140 e the file name to anemail attachment, retrieve the email attachment, and send it to theexternal system.

The external system can be any system or software application capable ofhandling file information. For instance, the external system may be aweb server that serves up web pages with file information, or it may bethe operating system on an email user's computer.

2. Example File-System View of Email Attachments

The above-described method can be used to provide a file-system view ofemail attachments. In such case, the email application appears as a filesystem to an email user's operating system. The operating system is on aclient computer which communicates with the server running the emailapplication via a network (e.g., the Internet or an Intranet)

FIG. 2 illustrates a method for providing a file-system view of emailattachments. The steps outlined in a solid line are performed by anemail application, and the steps outlined by a dashed line are performedby a user or a user's operating system (or otherwise performed on theclient computer). Moreover, the method is illustrated in the form of aflow chart, but those skilled in the art will appreciate that theillustrated steps need not necessarily be performed in the exact orderillustrated in FIG. 2.

With respect to FIG. 2, the email application appears 210 as a filesystem to a user's operating system. In one embodiment, this isimplemented by associating a drive on the user's computer with the emailapplication, where the operating system is provided with the name of thedrive and the address of the server running the email application. Oncethe operating system recognizes the email application as a file system,it displays 215 a drive associated with the email application.

When the user selects 217 the drive, the operating system sends 219 arequest to the email application for the contents of the drive. Theoperating system communicates with the email application via a protocolthat enables the exchange of file information. For Windows operatingsystems, the WEBDAV protocol can be used.

As stated above, the email application categorizes email attachments, inone embodiment, at least some of the highest-level categories correspondto all or some of the “fields” of the metadata. The email applicationmaps 220 each of the highest-level categories into a folder name. Inthis sense, each folder is a “virtual folders” as it is a folder in nameonly.

In response to the operating system's request for the contents of thedrive, the email application provides 222 such folder names to theoperating system. The operating system then displays 225 the folders.FIG. 3 illustrates an example of what a user see. In this case, the usersees folders titled “By Date”, “By Domain,” “By Sender,” “By Type,”which means that, at the very least, email attachments in this exampleare categorized by date, by domain names associated with senders andrecipients (e.g., “abccorp.com”), by sender, and by type. In the examplein FIG. 3, there also is a folder titled “All Attachments,” whichcontains all the email attachments for the user.

In response to the user opening 227 (e.g., double-clicking on) one ofsuch folders, the operating system asks 229 the email application forthe contents of such folder. The email application maps 230 openedfolder name to the category to which the folder corresponds anddetermines 232 whether or not such category is associated with furthercategorization options. Further categorization options are justadditional categories that further categorize the email attachmentsunder the first-level categories. For example, if the first-levelcategories correspond to the fields of the metadata, the second-levelcategories can correspond to the terms of the metadata (see FIG. 4).Also, there can be third and fourth-level categories that correspond tothe additional fields (other than the field associated with thefirst-level category) and the terms under such additional fields.

If the selected category is associated with further categorizationoptions, the email application maps 234 each of such categorizationoptions into a folder name and provides the folder names as the contentsof the opened folder. The operating system then display 225 folders withsuch folder names as the contents of the opened folder. FIG. 4illustrates an example of what a user might see if he opens the folderin FIG. 3 titled “Sender.” In this example, the further categorizationoptions are the terms associated with the metadata field “Sender.” Theterms are “roland@liquidsys.com,” “ross@liquidsys.com,” and“Satish@liquidsys.com” because the user has received attachments from“roland@liquidsys.com,” “ross@liquidsys.com,” and “satish@liquidsys.com”In this example, each of these folders can contain the attachments fromthese senders (FIG. 5), or, as illustrated in FIG. 6, they can containfurther folders which further categorize the folders from that sender bydate, domain, and file type. As the folders in FIG. 6 correspond tometadata fields, such folders would include subfolders that correspondto the terms of such fields.

Returning again to FIG. 2, in response to the selected category notbeing associated with further categorization options, the emailapplication identifies 235 the email attachments for the user that fitunder the selected category. In an embodiment where email attachmentsare indexed by metadata, this may include looking up the selectedcategory in the index and retrieving the identity of the emailattachment listed under such category in the index. In one embodiment,the retrieved identity information is message IDs and message partnumbers assigned to the email attachments.

After identifying the relevant email attachments, the email applicationmaps 236 each of such email attachments to a file name and sends theoperating system a file directory with all such file names. In thisembodiment, the files are essentially “virtual files” because the emailsystems only creates a name for the file it does not actually copy theemail attachment and save it under the file name. The operating system237 displays the file names as the contents of the opened folder. FIG. 5illustrates an example of what a user might see if he opens the “Satish”folder shown in FIG. 4. In this case there is file title “expense.doc”and a file titled “LiquidDirectory.pdf”

In response to a user selecting 239 one of the displayed files in thefile-system view, the operating system sends 239 the email application arequest for the file, providing a file path name. The email applicationmaps 240 the file path name to an email attachment. In one embodiment,mapping to an email attachment means mapping to a message ID and partnumber associated with an email attachment. The email applicationretrieves 242 a copy of the email attachment from storage, and it sends242 the email attachment to the operating system.

In an alternate embodiment, instead of having virtual folders andvirtual file names, the email application actually creates folders foreach of the categories and makes copies of the email attachments whichare stored in the applicable folders. Such an embodiment is not asstorage efficient as having virtual files and folders.

3. Software Implementation

For ease of explanation, an email application for implementing theabove-described methods can be thought of as divided into variousfunctional modules, which are illustrated in FIG. 7. These modules are aMailbox Interface 770, a Query Parser 730, an Indexer 735, a DatabaseManagement Module 740, a Message Store Interface 745, a MTA Interface775, an Email Client Interface 715, a Web Server Interface 725, and aFile System Interface 720. In one embodiment these modules are coded inJava.

Those skilled in the art will appreciate that an email application willinclude additional functionality not represented by the above modules(such as functionality related to security, user log in, global addresslists, etc.). However, such functionality is well known in the art and adiscussion of such functionality is not relevant for an understanding ofthe invention described herein. Moreover, those skilled in the art willappreciate that there may be many ways to implement the methodsdescribed in FIGS. 1 and 2 a-b, and the software implementationdescribed herein with respect to FIGS. 7-11 is just one example of animplementation.

The Database Management Module 740 is relational database managementsoftware, such as mySQL, for managing, storing and retrievinginformation in a Database 755. The Database 755 includes informationabout each authorized email user's mailbox that is used to generate aview of the user's mailbox. It stores a listing of the contents of auser's mailbox (with a reference to the actual storage location of themessages in the Message Store 760), and it includes mutable informationabout such content, such as which folder each message resides (inbox,sent items, user-created folders, etc.) or which messages have beenread.

The Message Store Interface 745 is software for storing and retrievingemail messages in a Message Store 760. The Message Store (often referredto as the “BLOB Store” in the industry) stores the actual emailmessages, including any attachments embedded within email messages.Techniques for storing and retrieving email messages, as well as storingand retrieving user-specific mailbox information to generate a view of auser's mailbox are well known in the art.

The Indexer 735 indexes email messages and email attachments based onemail metadata, where the indexes are stored in the Index 750. A copy ofthe metadata is also stored in the Index 750. The operation of theIndexer 735 is discussed in more detail with respect to FIGS. 9-12. Inan alternate embodiment, the functionality of the Indexer 735 and theDatabase Management Module 740 are combined, and the metadata index anduser mailbox information are stored in one database.

The Email Client Interface 715 is the interface through which the emailapplication communicates with email client software. The Email ClientInterface 715 formats inbound and outbound information appropriately sothat the email application can communicate with client software. In oneembodiment, the email Client Interface 715 supports POP and MAP.

The Web Server Interface 725 is the interface through which the emailapplication 710 communicates with web servers. It formats inbound andoutbound information appropriately so that the email application 710 cancommunicate with web servers.

The File System Interface 720 is the interface though which the emailapplication 710 communicates with external operating systems to appearas a file system to the operating systems. In one embodiment, the FileSystem Interface 720 uses a protocol called “WEBDAV” to communicationwith Windows operating systems. In one implementation, the File SystemInterface 720 performs the mapping functionality described in FIG. 2(e.g., steps 220, 230, 234, 236, and 240).

The MTA Interface 775 receives incoming messages for authorized usersfrom a Mail Transfer Agent (MTA) (not shown). In one embodiment the MTAInterface 775 uses the Local Mail Transfer Protocol (LMTP) tocommunicate with an MTA that uses the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol(SMTP). The MTA Interface 775 forwards incoming email message to theMailbox Interface 770.

The Mailbox Interface 770 processes incoming email messages, includingparsing metadata, as described below with respect to FIG. 8. The MailboxInterface 770 includes a Query Parser 730, which parses all requeststhat involve searching the Index 750 or the Database 755. It createsappropriate query trees and sends them to either the Indexer 735 or theDatabase Management Module 740, depending on whether or not the Index750 or the Database 755 has the appropriate information.

The Query Parser 730 receives, and if necessary, assembles the responsesto the query trees from the Indexer 735 and Database Management Module740 and forwards it to the appropriate interface (such as interfaces715, 720, 725) for transmittal to the requesting systems.

FIG. 8 illustrates how the Mailbox Interface 770 handles incoming emailmessages. When the Mailbox Interface 770 receives an email message, itparses 810 the header of the message for metadata. If the email messageincludes an attachment, then the email header also includes metadataabout the attachment. Techniques for parsing email message headers areknown in the art, and, in one embodiment the Mailbox Interface 770supports MIME.

The email application sends 820 a copy of some or all of the metadata tothe Database Management Module 740, which provides 815 the MailboxInterface 770 with a message ID for the message. It also provides partnumbers for each of the attachments (if any).

For each email message and email attachment, the Mailbox Interface 770creates 830 a document that includes the metadata from the email headerand the message ID (referred to herein as the “metadata document”).Specifically, the metadata document includes a field for the message IDand a field for each of the metadata fields in the email header. Themessage ID field is populated with the message ID received from theDatabase Management Module 740, and the metadata fields are populatedwith the corresponding metadata terms (i.e., the value of the fields) inthe email message header. Metadata documents for email attachmentsinclude all the metadata from the applicable email message in additionto the metadata related to the attachment. Metadata documents for emailattachments also include the part number assigned to the emailattachment.

The Mailbox interface 770 sends 840 the metadata document(s) to theIndexer 735, which then indexes 845 the metadata document according tothe fields and terms of the metadata in such metadata document. Becausethe metadata documents correspond to email messages and emailattachments, indexing the metadata documents is equivalent to indexingthe email messages and email attachments. Creating a separate metadatadocument for each email attachments enables email attachments to betracked separately from email messages. There is a separate index foreach authorized (i.e., provisioned) user. Indexing email attachments bythe metadata fields and terms is one way to categorize email attachment,but those skilled in the art will appreciate that there are other waysto categorize email attachments.

Referring again to FIG. 8, the Mailbox Interface 770 sends 850 theactual email message (including any attachments) to the Message StoreInterface 745. The Message Store Interface 745 stores 855 the emailmessage in the Message Store 760.

FIG. 9 illustrates an example of a representation of an index created bythe Indexer 735 for email attachments received by a particular user. Inthis example, the top level 910 of the index consists of the “fields” ofthe metadata associated with email messages and email attachments. Undereach field in the index are tables 920 for each of the “terms” that havebeen received for such field for the user. Each of the tables 920 listthe metadata documents having such term, where each metadata documentcorresponds to an email attachment. (The dots in FIG. 9 represent othertables for the respective fields and terms).

In the example illustrated in FIG. 9, the email user has received emailattachments from roland@liquidsys.com, ross@liquidsys.com, andsatish@liquidsys.com, and hence “roland@liquidsys.com,ross@liquidsys.com,” and “satish@liquidsys.com” are the terms under thefield “From.” The illustrated index indicates that email attachments #1and #4 are from Roland, and email attachments #2 and #3 are from Rossand Satish, respectively.

FIG. 10 illustrates one way in which the Indexer 735 can index emailmessages and email attachments according to the metadata fields andterms. As stated above, the Mailbox Interface 770 sends the Indexer 735a metadata document for each email attachment and each email message,where the metadata fields in such document correspond to the first-levelof the index stored for each user. For each metadata document receivedfrom the Mailbox Interface 770, the Indexer 735 reads 1010 the metadatadocument, and, for each field in the metadata document, it determines1020 whether the term associated with the field exists as a subcategoryunder the field in the index. In one embodiment, this entailsdetermining whether there is a table corresponding to such term underthe field in the index. If the term does not exist as a subcategoryunder the field in the index, the Indexer adds 1040 the term as asubcategory under the field. In one embodiment, this involves adding atable corresponding to such term to the index under the field.

After the new term is added under the field, or if the term alreadyexisted under the field, then a reference to the metadata document forthat email message or email attachment is added 1050 under such term. Inone embodiment, this entails adding the metadata document ID to thetable for such term. If the index includes additional levels with otherfields and terms, this process applies to such other fields and terms.

With respect to providing a file-system view of email attachments, FIG.11 illustrates an example of how the File System Interface 720identifies the subcategories under a category so that it can map suchsubcategories to folder names (see step 234 in FIG. 2 b). In response toa user opening a folder that corresponds to a category withsubcategories, the File System Interface 720 sends 1110 a request to theMailbox Interface 770 to enumerate the subcategories. The MailboxInterface 770 forwards 1120 the request to the Indexer 735, whichretrieves 1130 the subcategory information from the Index 750 (e.g., itenumerates the terms of the index under a particular field) and sends itthe Mailbox Interface 770. The Mailbox Interface 770 then provides thesubcategories to the File System Interface 720.

FIG. 12 illustrates an example of how the File System Interface 720obtains the identity of email attachments under a category that has nofurther subcategories. When the File System Interface 720 receives arequest from the operating system for the contents of a folder with nosubfolders, the File System Interface 720 sends 1210 a request to theMailbox Interface 770 to identify all the email attachments under thecategory corresponding to such folder. The Query Parser 730 (within theMailbox Interface 770) receives the request and forms 1220 anappropriate query tree for the request. The Query Parser 730 sends 1230the query tree to the Indexer 735, which uses the query tree to search1240 the Index 750 and sends 1250 the search results to the Query Parser730. The Query Parser 730 then forwards 1260 the search results to theFile System Interface 720.

In one embodiment, the search results are message IDs and message partnumbers retrieved from metadata documents satisfying the query tree inthe Index 750. In this embodiment, when the File System Interface 720maps email attachments to file names, it is mapping message IDs andcorresponding part numbers to file names. When an operating systemrequests a particular file, the File System Interface 720 maps the filename to the message ID and part number and sends a request to theMailbox Interface 770 for the attachment corresponding to the message IDand part number. The Mailbox Interface 770 sends the message ID and partnumber to the Message Store Interface 745, which retrieves theattachment corresponding to the message ID and part number from theMessage Store and sends the attachment to the File System Interface 720via the Mailbox Interface 770.

Analogous methods as those described with respect to FIGS. 2 a, 2 b, 11,and 12 can be performed to enable email attachments to be viewed throughother external systems. For instance, the Web Server Interface 725 canperform similar functions as the File System Interface 720 to enableemail attachments to be viewed through a web browser.

4. User-Created Categories

Email messages and email attachments can be categorized by user-createdcategories instead or in addition to categories based on the metadataterms and fields. User-created categories can be “tags” that a user hasassociated with an email message. Techniques for enabling email messagesto be tagged are well known in the art.

In one embodiment, each tag is assigned a unique ID, and emailattachments (or metadata information relating to such email attachments)are indexed or stored in a table appropriately under the unique IDs.Such an index or table can be store in either Index 750 or Database 755,and the Query Parser 730 can direct requests to the Indexer 735 or theDatabase Management Module 740 appropriately. In the event that a searchrequest from the File System Interface 720 or other external systeminterface requires information from both the Index and the DatabaseManagement Module 740, the Query Parser 730 will divide up the requestappropriately between the Indexer 735 and Database Management Module740. The Query Parser 730 will then filter or merge the search resultsfrom the Indexer 735 and Database Management Module 740 as necessary tocomply with the constraints of the search request.

5. Conclusion

As will be understood by those familiar with the art, the invention maybe embodied in other specific forms without departing from the spirit oressential characteristics thereof. Accordingly, the disclosure of thepresent invention is intended to be illustrative and not limiting of theinvention.

1-33. (canceled)
 34. A method for enabling a view of categorized emailattachments using a system external to an email application that storesand processes emails, the method comprising: receiving, by the emailapplication, an email comprising an email attachment; storing the emailattachment in a message store; categorizing, in an email system, theemail attachment separately from the email; providing, to the externalsystem, information that identifies each category in the email system;in response to a request for contents of a selected category in theemail system, providing the external system contents of the selectedcategory.
 35. The method of claim 34, wherein providing the externalsystem contents of the selected category comprises: identifying one ormore email attachments under the selected category; mapping the one ormore email attachments associated with the selected category to filenames, and display the file names as contents of the selected category.36. The method of claim 34, wherein categorizing the email attachmentseparately from the email comprises: parsing the email for metadataassociated with the email and the email attachment; and categorizing theemail attachment and the email in separate categories based on themetadata.
 37. The method of claim 36, wherein providing the externalsystem contents of the selected category comprises providing files thatcorrespond to each of the stored email attachments associated with theselected category.
 38. The method of claim 37, further comprising:receiving a request for contents of a selected file; and providing theexternal system contents of one or more email attachments thatcorrespond to the selected file.
 39. The method of claim 37, furthercomprising: receiving a request for contents of a selected file;providing the external system one or more sub-categories associated withthe requested file.
 40. The method of claim 37, wherein the selectedcategory corresponds to metadata associated with all email attachmentsin the message store.
 41. The method of claim 34, further comprising,based on the email attachment, creating categories upon which tocategorize the email attachment and the email separately in the emailsystem.
 42. A system comprising: a message store for storing emailattachments; and a server comprising a processor programmed to: receivean email comprising an email attachment; store the email attachment inthe message store; categorize, in one or more categories, the emailattachment separately from the email; provide, to an external system,information that identifies each of the one or more categories; inresponse to a request for contents of a selected one of the one or morecategories, providing the external system contents of the selectedcategory.
 43. The system of claim 42, wherein providing the externalsystem contents of the selected category comprises: identifying one ormore email attachments under the selected category; mapping the one ormore email attachments associated with the selected category to filenames, and display the file names as contents of the selected category.44. The system of claim 42, wherein categorizing the email attachmentseparately from the email comprises: parsing the email for metadataassociated with the email and the email attachment; and categorizing theemail attachment and the email in separate categories based on themetadata.
 45. The system of claim 44, wherein providing the externalsystem contents of the selected category comprises providing files thatcorrespond to each of the stored email attachments associated with theselected category.
 46. The system of claim 45, wherein the processor isfurther programmed to: receive a request for contents of a selectedfile; and provide the external system contents of one or more emailattachments that correspond to the selected file.
 47. The system ofclaim 45, wherein the selected category corresponds to metadataassociated with all email attachments in the message store.
 48. Thesystem of claim 42, wherein the processor is further programmed to,based on the email attachment, create categories upon which tocategorize the email attachment and the email separately in the emailsystem.
 49. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprisingcomputer-executable instructions thereon, that when executed by one ormore processors, cause the one or more processors to perform the stepsof: receiving an email comprising an email attachment; storing the emailattachment in a message store; categorizing the email attachmentseparately from the email; providing, to an external system, informationthat identifies each category; in response to a request for contents ofa selected category, providing the external system contents of theselected category.
 50. The non-transitory computer-readable storagemedium of claim 49, wherein providing the external system contents ofthe selected category comprises: identifying one or more emailattachments under the selected category; mapping the one or more emailattachments associated with the selected category to file names, anddisplay the file names as contents of the selected category.
 51. Thenon-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 49, whereincategorizing the email attachment separately from the email comprises:parsing the email for metadata associated with the email and the emailattachment; and categorizing the email attachment and the email inseparate categories based on the metadata.
 52. The non-transitorycomputer-readable storage medium of claim 51, wherein providing theexternal system contents of the selected category comprises providingfiles that correspond to each of the stored email attachments associatedwith the selected category.
 53. The non-transitory computer-readablestorage medium of claim 52, wherein the one or more processors furtherperform the step of, based on the email attachment, creating categoriesupon which to categorize the email attachment and the email separatelyin the email system.